If you’re reading this blog, there’s a pretty good chance you know that two weeks ago, I released my very first NA novel, which is, among other things, a romance between a teacher and student.* This book, Last Will and Testament, originated with the idea of a girl who was something of a train wreck having to take on custody of her younger brothers at college, but it didn’t fall into place as a complete story until the romance was set in place too.

Why teacher-student?

Because Pretty Little Liars, that’s why. I was hooked on Ezria from episode 1, and I knew that was the romance I wanted to write. AND NOW YOU KNOW.

So, what do you do when you get a story idea and you’re writing in a category that wasn’t even a category the last time you wrote it?

You research what’s already out there.

(Please note, at the time, I had no idea what Slammed was about beyond that it involved beat poetry. That it is teacher/student and addresses guardianship are not in the blurb. So, yeah, that would’ve been the obvious research choice had I known. Whoops. ANYWAY.)

So, to Amazon! Where I searched through student-teacher romances, chose one with a fascinatingly intriguing cover (RIP Rainbowface) and a cool blurb, and started to read it on the subway. And then it was so good, it gave me writer anxiety, which I obviously had to tweet about:

Reading one of those books that straddles the line between “So happy this is so good” and “Oh crap, why do I bother writing?” #UNTEACHABLE

As evidenced by her being somewhat nice there (I mean, if you ignore the total head pat), it’s obvious Leah Raeder and I did not know each other yet. But there you have the story of how she became my arch-nemesis and fellow Menace to Sincerity: it’s all Last Will and Testament‘s fault. And Unteachable‘s. And hers, just because most things are.

So, in celebration of the final day, today’s prize is a signed paperback of Last Will and Testament, which comes with an Unteachable bookmark signed by Leah Raeder.

*Students and teachers totally have Chanukah relevance, btw. Those spinning top things (Dreidel in Yiddish, S’vivon in Hebrew) we play with hail from back in the days when Jews were forbidden from studying from the Torah, so if the Greeks spotted them teaching/learning, they pulled them out and pretended they’d just been playing with them all along. The four letters – one on each side – stand for the Hebrew words “Nes Gadol Haya Sham,” or “A great miracle happened there.” (Except in Israel, where “Sham” is replaced with “Poh,” i.e. “here.”) There, don’t say Aunt Dahlia never taught you anything.

Me and Julie Murphy at Books of Wonder, where she signed my brand new copy of SIDE EFFECTS MAY VARY!

In even more reason to do these monthly check-ins probably no one cares about me, I’m participating in the YA Buccaneers’ spring boot camp. (Shout out to the League of Antagonists!) Which means more accountability, more people who have to berate me if I fail to progress, and just generally more being neurotic. OH THE GLORY. And now, yet another update of my 2014 goals/resolutions! (Also, because I got to meet a lot of fun people this month, enjoy some fun March pictures!)

1. Read 5 MGs – Ummmm…still zero. But I bought another one, which should count for something! Since I wasn’t able to make it to either of Laura Marx Fitzgerald’s events celebrating the release of her MG debut, UNDER THE EGG, I nabbed myself a lovely little autographed copy from Books of Wonder at the mega-signing on March 23, and I’m excited to read it…eventually!

2. Read 20 Non-Contemp YAs – Adding two more to the list, compliments of the OneFours! Both LIV, FOREVER by Amy Talkington and THE VIOLET HOUR by Whitney Miller were hella creepy and haunting, with the former being in a more lovely, spooky, heartbreaking way and the latter being in a more active, fast-paced, gory sort of way. So, fun month for cool spec-fic! Also bought a couple more at the BoW signing (thanks, in part, to Gaby being awesome at her job) – THE WINNER’S CURSE by Marie Rutkowski and SCARLET by A.C. Gaughen.

4. Read 115 Other Books – Steadily going! Currently up to 31 for the year. My most recent read was SOMETHING REAL by Heather Demetrios, which I adored, and presumably I’ll finish Steve Brezenoff’s GUY IN REAL LIFE by the end of the day, and highly rec that too.

5. Finish my Follow-Up to BEHIND THE SCENES – DONE DONE-ITY DONE DONE. The first draft of UNDER THE LIGHTS went to my lovely editor, Patricia Riley, on Wednesday night, March 26! Thanks to everyone who celebrated with me 😉

6. Finish drafting LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT – Now that UNDER THE LIGHTS is done, this is my next writing goal, and I’m aiming to have it completed before I go on my first vacation in I don’t even know how long, so, official target date is by April 13!

8. Write at least three posts pimping QUILTBAG (QUeer/QUestioning Intersex Lesbian Transgender Bisexual Asexual Gay) titles – Nothing new yet, as I’m waiting for some more new titles to release before I write something new for B&N, but I will point out in this one that FAR FROM YOU by Tess Sharpe and THE SUMMER I WASN’T ME by Jessica Verdi both release in April, and you should buy them!

9. Blog more about New Adult, specifically expanding upon the things I talk about here – A little roundabout, but this month I featured a couple of my favorite New Adult authors. Make sure you check out my interview with THE WICKED WE HAVE DONE author Sarah Harian (which does discuss some of that), and the cover reveal for UNTEACHABLE by Leah Raeder!

10. Interview another one of my all-time favorite YA writers – Haven’t done this, but next month I’ll have a guest post from a YA author I’m excited about! Meanwhile, I’m doing lots of other interviews with great people for my brand-new Dialogues with Dahlia series. Currently looking for publicists, librarians, and booksellers, so if you’re one of those and up for a chat, lemme know!

Also, at this point, it’d be pretty impossible for me not to hit 100K pageviews today, so THANK YOU to everyone who’s supported this blog, whether by reading it, commenting on it, being interviewed for it, sharing links, and God only knows what else. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.

As a little token of my appreciation, I’m giving away a few things to celebrate:

1. An e-copy of UNTEACHABLE by Leah Raeder, because duh, if you’ve read this blog, like, ever

3. A paperback copy of THE DISENCHANTMENTS by Nina LaCour, because I love it and once bought an extra copy just because

4. A copy of SEKRET by Lindsay Smith, because my accountabilibuddy has to deal with a whole lot more status updates from me than just these once-monthlies, and her debut, which releases tomorrow, kicks serious ass

5. A collection of swag from a whole bunch of books, mostly because I have a ton and it’s getting wasted on me. And yes, there’ll be swag for BEHIND THE SCENES in there too 🙂

Ummm, I’m not big on Rafflecopter, but you should probably be following this blog or following me on Twitter or something if you’re gonna enter. And by enter, I mean leave a comment with something about your March, and/or something/anything relating to my blog/how awesome I am, and what prize(s) you’d theoretically like to be entered in for. Giveaway ends Friday, April 4, at noon EST!

I pretty much never do cover reveals, but unless you’re a new follower to this blog (which many of you are! Hi! Welcome!) you’re probably aware that the obscenely beautifully written New Adult debut UNTEACHABLE by Leah Raeder was one of my favorite books of 2013. (In fact, you can read my experience of stumbling upon it in this interview I did with the author.) So you can imagine how crazy excited I was to learn that it was super well deservedly picked up by Atria Books/Simon & Schuster, along with a separate contemporary NA standalone that I would punch a lion for.

Rest In Peace, Neon Girl ❤

However, the sale was bittersweet, because how could you not love that original cover (pictured at right), described by the author-designer herself as looking “like someone puked up a string of partially digested Christmas lights”? And yet here it was going to be redone? QUELLE HORREUR. As someone who has an e-book and not one but two hard copies (glossy *and* matte!), not counting the one I perhaps ill-advisedly purchased for my mother, I found it immeasurably sad to be losing Neon Girl.

Then I saw the new cover, and holy hell did that make up for it.

You wanna see what I mean, don’t you?

You can do that.

Just, ya know:

Look down.

No, not yet.

Okay, now.

Are you thinking in expletive form? I know I did ❤ Not only does the new cover keep the glorious neon brightness of the old one, beautifully capturing the carnival of the opening scene where main character Maise and love interest Evan meet, but it also has the most perfect, perfect, perfect depiction of Maise they could’ve possibly found. She’s a gorgeous badass, with just a touch of vulnerability, and oh God I love it so much.

Oh, and for those of you questionable souls who haven’t read it a zillion times, and don’t own a bajillion copies, here’s the blurb and where you can buy it:

An edgy, sexy USA Today bestseller about falling for the last guy you should…your high school teacher.

Maise O’Malley just turned eighteen, but she’s felt like a grown-up her entire life. The summer before senior year, she has plans: get into a great film school, convince her mom to go into rehab, and absolutely do not, under any circumstances, screw up her own future.

But life has a way of throwing her plans into freefall.

When Maise meets Evan at a carnival one night, their chemistry is immediate, intense, and short-lived. Which is exactly how she likes it: no strings. But afterward, she can’t get Evan out of her head. He’s taught her that a hookup can be something more. It can be an unexpected connection with someone who truly understands her. Someone who sees beyond her bravado to the scared but strong girl inside.

That someone turns out to be her new film class teacher, Mr. Evan Wilke.

Maise and Evan resolve to keep their hands off each other, but the attraction is too much to bear. Together, they’re real and genuine; apart, they’re just actors playing their parts for everyone else. And their masks are slipping. People start to notice. Rumors fly. When the truth comes to light in a shocking way, they may learn they were just playing parts for each other, too.

Smart, sexy, and provocative, Unteachable is about what happens when a love story goes off-script.

As for the cover, given that I basically stared at it for like an hour after Leah sent it, and have kind “checked in on it” every day since, I think it’s pretty safe to say that I think it makes for pretty stunning artwork. And so does Leah, which is why she is awesomely GIVING AWAY A SIGNED 20″x30″ POSTER OF IT. Want that as crazy badly as I do? Check out the giveaway on her blog!

And, of course, if that’s not enough Leah Raeder, you can always find more here:

I’m totally cheating in this week’s The Broke and the Bookish top ten, because I already blogged about this earlier in the month, so I’m really just gonna re-list them. I hope that people check out the links, though, because eight out of the ten books actually have interviews with the authors attached that I definitely recommend! (Also, I did my post entirely on 2013 books, though I definitely read some other faves this year!)

First, though, because I did it earlier in the month, I want to give shoutouts to the two books that are definitely contenders but which I read after picking my top 10 (always the danger, I know, I know) and so didn’t make the cut:

THE INTERESTINGS by Meg Wolitzer and THE BEGINNING OF EVERYTHING by Robyn Schneider were both great, but more than that, the two of them combined to basically create the perfect amalgam of my own personal high school existence. Ash and Cassidy could be combined to make one very specific past friend of mine, and realizing that was simultaneously great and terrifying. It’s weird to have books hit so close to home that I kept mentally inserting certain apartments or lunch tables into scenes, but given I had a somewhat “unorthodox” (IF YOU KNOW ME YOU KNOW WHY THAT IS A FABULOUS PUN) upbringing, I always find it very cool when books manage to transport me in that way. I don’t know that they’re necessarily books that would garner universal love or if the personal connection plays in just that strongly for me, but at least with THE BEGINNING OF EVERYTHING, I kept thinking it reminded me of LOOKING FOR ALASKA (though I personally preferred it), so, if that might be your thing, I’d advocate checking it out.

And now, onward to my top 10! (Links go to the posts from my Top 10 series, which contain interviews with each author, except in the cases of Rainbow Rowell and Gayle Forman.)

UNTEACHABLE by Leah Raeder (Leah’s been lovely enough to let me interview her twice, so that name link is to the original, longer one.)

I pair today’s two 2013 faves for one big reason – they both definitely have the power to pull you out of any book hangover…or to plunge you into one.

Both of these books also have the distinction of being the two I recommended the most frequently in the past year, in large part because I think both of them fill major holes in existing literature. At a time when New Adult is still struggling to find its footing and frequently reusing the same tropes and a near-uniformly commercial style of writing, UNTEACHABLE is the book I recommend to people begging for something different, for something more, from the fledgling category.

And DANGEROUS GIRLS? That’s what I rec to people who want a dark, thrilling mindscrew of a book they won’t be able to put down. Pulls people out of The Dreaded Slump every. Damn. Time.

So, last but absolutely not least – my final two faves of 2013:

UNTEACHABLE by Leah Raeder

I met him at a carnival, of all corny places. The summer I turned eighteen, in that chaos of neon lights and cheap thrills, I met a man so sweet, so beautiful, he seemed to come from another world. We had one night: intense, scary, real. Then I ran, like I always do. Because I didn’t want to be abandoned again.

But I couldn’t run far enough.

I knew him as Evan that night. When I walked into his classroom, he became Mr. Wilke.

My teacher.

I don’t know if what we’re doing is wrong. The rules say one thing; my heart says screw the rules. I can’t let him lose his job. And I can’t lose him.

In the movies, this would have a happy ending. I grow up. I love, I lose, I learn. And I move on. But this is life, and there’s no script. You make it up as you go along.

I’ve kinda gushed over this one to death, and if you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’ve already bought this on my recommendation. If you haven’t, and you like gorgeously written books with taboo storylines and a whole lot of heat, buy this one yesterday. (Contains graphic sexual content and strong language. Is way, way better for doing so.)

And since no matter how much I bug her, she always has more insightful wisdom to share, here’s Leah Raeder:

What scene from UNTEACHABLE would/do you read at signings, and why?

I don’t think I could actually do a reading in public. I’m way too antisocial and weird. Most of my friends have never even seen my face. (You don’t count, Dahlia. We are obviously soulmates.)

But if you held a gun to my head, first I would try to reason with you that violence is not the answer, and then I would read one of the parts that doesn’t have sex in it. Which, uh, narrows it down to about two: the beginning or the ending. So probably the beginning. Up until peen happens.

I want to enjoy UNTEACHABLE as part of a full sensory experience – where am I reading it, and what am I eating/smelling/listening to?

You’re on the still-warm hood of a 1980s Chevy Monte Carlo, in the tall grass outside a carnival, on a hot summer night. Before you the rides paint streaks of neon light across the sky. You’re eating buttered popcorn and drinking an ice-cold PBR. You can smell deep-fried everything wafting from the fairgrounds. “Girls Like You” by The Naked and Famous streams from the car radio, wistful and bittersweet. A girl of a certain age, wearing way-too-short-where-is-her-mother cutoffs, walks past you, winks, and walks on.

My book dream is to spot a stranger reading it on the subway – what’s yours?

Film adaptation, of course.

What’s the best/coolest thing anyone’s said about your book?

Oh god, so many things. I’ve read nearly every review of Unteachable (I know, I know–I can’t help it, curiosity is my undoing), and received so many kind messages, and made so many new friends. The response is completely overwhelming. You guys who were touched by my book–you know you made me feel the same, right? I am full of gross amounts of love for you all.

But there’s one that stands out sharply because it changed how I saw everything. It’s a brief review on Goodreads by a woman named Ivy. At the end of her review, she alludes to both the beginning/ending of the book and says, “Thank you, Leah, for sitting up front by yourself.”

When I read that, I sat down on my bedroom floor and cried my eyes out.

It came during August when the book was going viral and the success seemed utterly surreal to me. I’d been struggling to get published for years, and finally decided to give it one last shot and self-publish. I thought my writing dream was over. At best I thought I’d sell a couple hundred copies, accept that writing wouldn’t be a career for me (assuming there *is* a way to accept that your lifelong dream is an impossibility), and try to move on. Ivy had no idea what flipping my metaphor around did. I hadn’t realized until then how much of my own struggle I’d put into Maise trying to achieve *her* dream. It’s probably unforgivably lame to be so affected by your own corny metaphor, but yeah, it hit me hard and I bawled like a baby–for both me and Maise, going through all of that bullshit just to carve out a tiny slice of happiness in our lives.

From where would you most ideally want people to purchase your book?

Amazon Kindle. Like it or not, for an indie author, Kindle makes or breaks you. It is the single most important distribution channel indies have right now. Yeah, the whole One Publisher To Rule Them All thing bothers me, but my perspective is tempered by the fact that I slipped through the cracks of traditional publishing, and I wouldn’t have a career right now without Amazon. But indies are also at Amazon’s mercy, and evil overlords don’t tend to have much of that.

So we’re kinda stuck between a rock and a hard place here. Ultimately, though, it’s reader demand that will shape the marketplace. If Amazon starts getting squirrely and selectively removing books, readers will purchase those books elsewhere. In that way, it’s kind of awesome that authors and readers have the power to say “screw you guys” and take our work and business wherever we want. Self-publishing is far from perfect, but it’s giving a lot of the power back to the people who *should* have it: those who create and consume books.

*******

DANGEROUS GIRLS by Abigail Haas

It’s Spring Break of senior year. Anna, her boyfriend Tate, her best friend Elise, and a few other close friends are off to a debaucherous trip to Aruba that promises to be the time of their lives.

But when Elise is found brutally murdered, Anna finds herself trapped in a country not her own, fighting against vile and contemptuous accusations. As Anna sets out to find her friend’s killer, she discovers harsh revelations about her friendships, the slippery nature of truth, and the ache of young love.

Awaiting the judge’s decree, it becomes clear to Anna that everyone around her thinks she is not only guilty, but also dangerous. And when the whole story comes out, reality is more shocking than anyone ever imagined…

This is one of those books you don’t want to say too much about for fear of spoiling the reader; the best I can do is reiterate the fact that it’s fast, fun, twisty, and shocking in the best way. If you’re in a book slump, this is the perfect book to pull you out of it. And if you’ve been looking for “The GONE GIRL of YA,” I think this fits the bill quite beautifully. (I liked it better. Shh, don’t tell.)

And now, Abigail Haas, aka, Abby McDonald:

What scene from DANGEROUS GIRLS would/do you read at signings, and why?

I love the courtroom scene with the Halloween photos. A) It’s early enough in the book that there aren’t too many spoilers, but also B) I think it cuts to the central dynamic of the book, about perception vs reality, and how any moment can be reframed to suit a different narrative. I love the complexities of storytelling, and Anna talks about how the trial is a show — each side presenting their narrative to the judge to decide, and writing the book was a lot like that too: I’m constructing a narrative in a certain way, even as Anna and the prosecutors and the other characters are all spinning their stories about the same events.

I want to enjoy DANGEROUS GIRLS as part of a full sensory experience – where am I reading it, and what am I eating/smelling/listening to?

Oh, my, OK… the absolute ideal is in a really seedy trashy beach resort: the kind that’s all hot sun and lurid cocktails and loud, thumping Eurotrash dance music, sensory overload. Otherwise, just read it somewhere people won’t mind you yelling in frustration at the characters 🙂

My book dream is to spot a stranger reading it on the subway – what’s yours?

That would be awesome! I’d love to see one of my books as a movie. We’re figuring some stuff out about Dangerous Girls, but it’s definitely a possibility!

What’s the best/coolest thing anyone’s said about your book?

I know I shouldn’t, but I do stop by goodreads and read a lot of the blog reviews too. I’ve been so thrilled to see all the reactions to DG, I have to say, I love it when people are like, ‘OMG WTF THIS ENDING?!?!?!?’ That makes me very happy 🙂 Also, ‘I hated all the characters and I couldn’t stop reading, I loved it!” is another common review! Which is also awesome.

From where would you most ideally want people to purchase your book?

Anywhere, as long as it’s a legal purchase!

Are either of these books on your top 10 of 2013? If you haven’t read them yet, have they made it to your TBR? Tell us in the comments!

So, even though I have blog posts coming up every day for the next two weeks that are all about books I loved tremendously from the past year, obviously when I saw this post on Kari Bradley’s blog as part of Jamie/the Perpetual Page Turner’s bloghop, I got all jealous and had to do one myself. So, voila!

(As per Jamie, The survey is for books you read throughout the year, no matter when they were published, and is not limited to just books that came out in 2013!!)

BEST BOOKS IN 2013

I’m gonna take a page from Jamie at the Perpetual Page Turner’s post and do my fave per genre, because picking just one is not gonna happen:

CODE NAME VERITY. I so badly wanted to feel everyone else’s love for it, especially since I love histfic and a good friendship book, but alas, it just wasn’t for me at all. The other big one was ROOMIES, which is by two of my favorite authors and has a great premise but again, just didn’t click with me. Subjectivity FTW!

MOST SURPRISING (IN A GOOD WAY!) BOOK OF 2013

THE ART OF WISHING by Lindsay Ribar. I am so, so not a Paranormal reader, and I was on the fence about buying it to start with, but did so because I was at a huge signing where she was one of the authors, and a mutual friend there convinced me it was definitely worth reading. Fast forward to my loving it so much that I refused to put it down even when I was making both me and my husband late. Whatever. Worth it.

BOOK YOU READ IN 2013 THAT YOU RECOMMENDED TO PEOPLE MOST IN 2013?

UNTEACHABLE by Leah Raeder, no question. It’s definitely not most people’s usual read, and I love how many people trusted my recommendation enough to step outside their comfort zones. I don’t think a single person who read it was sorry they did!

BEST SERIES YOU DISCOVERED IN 2013

The DIVERGENT trilogy by Veronica Roth. Being that I’m not a big non-contemp reader, it took me a while to pick this one up. But I finally did, and am definitely glad for it!

FAVORITE NEW AUTHOR YOU DISCOVERED IN 2013

Tough call. I read a lot of great authors for the first time in 2013, but since I read two solid books by Trish Doller for the first time this year, one of which was a five-star for me, I’ll have to go with her.

BEST BOOK THAT WAS OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE OR A NEW GENRE FOR YOU

Given that I copy edit erotica for a living, my “comfort zone” is a little different than other people’s 😉 So, I’m gonna go in the opposite direction from most and say ALL FOUR STARS by Tara Dairman, which was, in fact, the first MG I’ve read as an adult, and is super freaking cute and felt delightfully foodie in a way that didn’t feel downplayed for a young audience.

MOST THRILLING, UNPUTDOWNABLE BOOK OF 2013

DANGEROUS GIRLS by Abigail Haas. But, I do want to give a nod to some other books I only put down out of sheer necessity and would otherwise have happily read in one sitting this year: NOBODY BUT US by Kristin Halbrook, SOMETHING LIKE NORMAL by Trish Doller, THE ART OF WISHING by Lindsay Ribar, and THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER by Michelle Hodkin.

BOOK YOU READ IN 2013 THAT YOU ARE LIKELY TO RE-READ IN THE COMING YEAR

UNTEACHABLE by Leah Raeder. I’ve already re-read it. It’s become my “I’m on the subway and I’m not in the mood for anything else on my Kindle” book.

It’s hard to separate books having an impact on me as a writer vs. as a reader, because, well, I’m very much both. I think what really impacted me this year was the discussion of Unlikeable (female) MCs, and my realization that I’d rather have characters be flawed than unbelievable. The book that really started this conversation in my brain this year was THE DISENCHANTMENTS by Nina LaCour, and HOW TO LOVE by Katie Cotugno is the one that finished it. Incidentially, both were five-star reads for me in 2013.

The clear winner, though, for book that had the greatest impact on me as a person as OCD LOVE STORY by Corey Ann Haydu. It’s taught me what it truly means to have an anxiety disorder, and though Bea’s might be an extreme case, it’s actually pretty amazing how many times I’ve talked myself off the metaphorical ledge by remembering “That is an anxiety disorder. You do not have that. You are going to be fine.”

BOOK YOU CAN’T BELIEVE YOU WAITED UNTIL 2013 TO FINALLY READ

I actually read almost entirely 2012-4 books this year, with the exception of trilogies that are outside my genre, so, I guess AMY & ROGER’S EPIC DETOUR by Morgan Matson, just because it’s such a me kind of premise and it came out a whole three years ago.

FAVORITE PASSAGE/QUOTE FROM A BOOK YOU READ IN 2013

“I respect people who get nerdy as fuck about something they love.” – UNTEACHABLE by Leah Raeder

SHORTEST AND LONGEST BOOK YOU READ IN 2013

I’m just gonna have to guess. Shortest was probably NOBODY BUT US by Kristin Halbrook, at 292 pages, and longest was probably WOLF HALL by Hilary Mantel, at 604 pages.

BOOK THAT HAD A SCENE THAT HAD ME REELING/DYING TO TALK TO SOMEONE ABOUT IT

WE WERE LIARS by E. Lockhart could’ve been a lot worse if I weren’t in public. AMY & ROGER’S EPIC DETOUR definitely got a few tears out of me, as did KK Hendin’s HEART BREATHS. I’m sure I had some scattered through the Divergent trilogy. But I think that’s it? I hope? Maybe?

BOOK YOU READ IN 2013 THAT YOU THOUGHT GOT OVERLOOKED THIS YEAR OR WHEN IT CAME OUT

I think Laura Wiess is criminally overlooked as an author of dark contemp YA, and I continued to feel that way after reading ORDINARY BEAUTY this year. DANGEROUS GIRLS by Abigail Haas is another one that got shockingly little attention for being so good, but friends and I are definitely working to change that!

BOOK BLOGGING/READING LIFE 2013

NEW FAVORITE BOOK BLOG YOU DISCOVERED IN 2013

Reader of Fictions. Hi, my name is Dahlia Adler and I’m addicted to Cover Snark. And yes, partly because the snark cracks me up, but also because it’s a great way to discover books I hadn’t previously heard of, and I love that it encompasses all different pub paths.

FAVORITE REVIEW THAT YOU WROTE IN 2013

Probably this one for HOW TO LOVE by Katie Cotugno, because it reflects a lot on the conversation I’ve been having with myself that I referenced above.

BEST DISCUSSION YOU HAD ON YOUR BLOG

I love the comments on this post about Power and Responsibility in Kidlit. At the time, I thought people found it annoying/inflating when bloggers responded to every comment, so I didn’t, but there are a bunch of interesting things being said!

MOST THOUGHT-PROVOKING REVIEW OR DISCUSSION YOU READ ON SOMEONE ELSE’S BLOG

Definitely this interview Heather of the Flyleaf Review did with Leah Raeder. It’s such a great discussion of “bad girls” in NA, sexual honesty in YA, and why even “sexed-up YA” might not be such a terrible thing.

BEST EVENT THAT YOU PARTICIPATED IN

The huge author signing at Books of Wonder that was part of Teen Author Festival. I got to meet and have books signed by Diana Peterfreund, AS King, Rainbow Rowell, Lindsay Ribar, Amy Spalding, and Nova Ren Suma, and I even got pictures with a couple of them. I also met lovely agents Sarah LaPolla and Bridget Smith. So, yeah, kinda tough to beat!

Teen Author Festival. Did not even know it was a thing. Pretty sure I owe Emily Keyes for this one!

READING CHALLENGES/GOALS

I originally set my Goodreads challenge at 75. Then when I saw I was killing it, I bumped it up to 100. Then again, 125. Now I’m past 130 and I’m just leaving it, but yes, I met it.

The other challenges I had for myself were to read five non-contemp books, which I definitely did (THE ART OF WISHING, THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER, DIVERGENT, INSURGENT, ALLEGIANT, FINNIKIN OF THE ROCK, DAUGHTER OF SMOKE & BONE, ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD, to name a bunch), and five MG books, which, sadly, I didn’t – ALL FOUR STARS by Tara Dairman was my only one.

LOOKING AHEAD

ONE BOOK YOU DIDN’T GET TO IN 2013 THAT WILL BE A PRIORITY IN 2014

PIVOT POINT by Kasie West. I originally avoided it for being non-contemp but I’ve heard such great things and I know from THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US that I’m a fan of her writing style, so I’ll be grabbing it as soon as it comes out in paperback at the end of the month.

Re: blogging, I definitely want to blog more about the debut process, once I know a little more. I also really hope to self-publish something this year, and if I do, I’ll certainly be blogging about that!

Time for yet another post on my favorite bookish meme, Top Ten Tuesday, as brought to the Internet by the Broke and the Bookish! This week, the question asked for “Top Ten Books I’d Recommend to X Person,” and the topic I selected came to me almost immediately. The number of New Adult books out there is incredibly overwhelming, and because they’re almost always so cheap, and reviews always seem to be super gushy, I find it impossible to tell what’s actually good from what’s a retread of the same poorly edited tattooed-bad-boy-meets-good-girl-who’s-been-hurt stuff.

To be clear, I don’t auto-hate the bad-boy/good-girl dynamic, though I am growing weary of it. What I auto-hate are jealous asshole love interests who punch everyone who looks at the girl. I auto-hate girls with no personality or sense of humor. I auto-hate the only bond between a couple being that they’ve both been hurt. And I am just donewith “girl with a history of being sexually abused and guy who’s been emotionally scarred in some way meet and fall in love but neither one knows how to be with someone else and THAT IS THE PLOT and also maybe he has another girlfriend-type person in his life that he treats like crap because she’s not The Girl.”

But let’s not focus on the bad; let’s focus on the good! Here are the top 10 NA books I recommend to anyone looking for something a little different that also isn’t riddled with typos!

1. UNTEACHABLE by Leah Raeder – I’m not subtle about my love for this book (or its author), and I am not ashamed. This teacher-student romance stands at the top of my list for being both beautifully written and different from the pack, with a compelling story, secondary characters that pop, and leads I couldn’t spend enough time with. Also, hot.

2. The Secret Society Girl series by Diana Peterfreund – I bought the first one on a Friday, read it on Saturday, and ordered the other three on Saturday night. This series about a not-really-disguised stand-in for a secret society at Yale and its first women-inclusive class has been one of my favorites and most constant re-reads over the past five years. (Sold as Adult; predates the existence of NA.)

3. ONE & ONLY by Viv Daniels – OK, yes, a little bit of a theme here since Viv Daniels is Diana Peterfreund, but here’s the thing – much as I do like the tattooed bad boys of NA, I like the hot, smart boys even more, and this is one author who caters to my taste oh so well. It also features a protagonist with a far more interesting backstory than the usual and is a great choice for anyone looking for books with math/science-inclined female characters. (*Full disclosure: I copyedited this book. It is not why I love it.)

4. SOCIAL SKILLS by Sara Alva – M/M romance is a particular favorite of mine (I copyedited it for almost two years at Dreamspinner Press and still do occasionally for Ellora’s Cave) but alas, it’s pretty lacking on the NA front, as all LGBTQ is. So when this book was recommended to me, I pretty much jumped on it, and am glad I did. Watching shy, socially awkward Connor struggle to gain his footing in college while navigating his first relationship is exactly the kind of story people are talking about when they state Why NA Needs to Be a Thing; though it’s about coming out, it feels like it’s as much about his coming out as a strong, independent adult as it is his coming out as gay. In particular, the gradual role reversal between him and closeted love interest Jared was a wonderful thing to read.

5. SPIRAL by Mila Ferrera – I had no idea what to expect going in to this one, but whatever I thought I was getting definitely got turned on its head. This one was unputdownable for me, in small part because I used to live exactly amidst its setting but in much larger part because it was a compelling story of characters I actually liked, flaws and all.

6. WHERE I END AND YOU BEGIN by Andra Brynn – It’s hard to be objective about this one because the couple in it reminds me so much of the one in my WIP, but I can objectively say it’s very different from the bad-boy/good-girl standard, the writing’s lovely, and it’s neither a typical story nor a typical presentation.

7. BE MY DOWNFALL by Lyla Payne – This is the third book in the Whitman University series, and it’s by far my favorite. While I liked the first two, something about the pairing of the dangerously off-kilter Kennedy and her determined-but-by-no-means-a-choirboy Toby just got to me. In a category where the girls who claim they just can’t get close to a guy because of a prior incident always seem to crumble within five pages, Kennedy was a girl who meant it, and that alone was a refreshing enough change to earn my devotion. But Toby too has his good and bad parts, and I hadn’t realized just how black and white male NA characters seemed to be until I enjoyed his shades of gray.

8. HEART BREATHS by KK Hendin – If you’re looking for a NA book that actually has no sex, this is literally the only one I’ve got to recommend. Of course, you also have to be okay with having your heart broken, just a little bit, and also okay with the tiniest bit of a paranormal bent. (If you’re not okay with the latter, do want sex, and still want a book that’s largely about grief and the mourning process, try COME SEE ABOUT ME by CK Kelly Martin. The pacing wasn’t my style but the grief is done beautifully.)

9. ALL OF YOU by Christina Lee – Full confession here: this book wasn’t as different as I thought it would be. The love interest, Bennett, is a virgin, which is the hugely compelling thing about this premise, but other than literally never having engaged in intercourse, he’s pretty much your typical NA hero. In theory. In practice, for whatever reason – probably because he was successfully conveyed to be both smoking hot and a genuinely nice guy – Bennett just worked better for me than 99% of NA boys.

10. BEAUTIFUL BROKEN by Nazarea Andrews – Honestly, BB only edged out Andrews’ NA debut, THIS LOVE, by a hair, and it’s mostly because the couple in THIS LOVE actually comes off as kind of unappealing as secondary characters in the follow-up. (It’s also got one of my favorite NA covers – love the combination of the autumnal scene, an outfit I would totally wear, and no (almost-)kissing.) There’s something about the way Andrews writes chemistry between couples that make her books the ones I return to over and over.

I started writing a Contemporary NA about a girl who, among other things, falls for her TA. While shopping for contemp NA to read, I came across a book with a very different cover from the others (which, by the way, was designed by Raeder, because being a brilliant writer is obviously not enough), called UNTEACHABLE, and saw that it, too, was a student-teacher romance. Well, I should really see what other writers with similar stories are doing, I thought.

I bought it. I started reading it. About five seconds in I thought, Oh, crap. This is so good it makes me want to move to a yurt and forsake all typing materials forever. You know the type – the books that make you think “WHY DO I EVEN BOTHER?!” And honestly, I thought about putting it down. I even tweeted about how miserable it was making me to read it. And she saw my tweet, and basically told me to buck up and keep going. And I was all, “OH, STFU, I HATE YOU,” but actually, “ZOMG I LOVE YOU WHERE HAS YOUR WRITING BEEN ALL MY LIFE.” But that was only in my head, I think, or maybe not, because I’m awkward.

ANYWAY, I kept reading, and waiting for it to get bad so I could feel better about myself (I am a PRIZE, I know), but…it didn’t. It was just a really, really, really great book. And then it turned out its author is pretty damn great herself. And didn’t get creeped out when I rec’d her book to every literate person under the sun. And also agreed when I asked her if I could interview her to celebrate her paperback release.

You went through the whole “get an agent, go on sub” thing prior to eventually self-publishing UNTEACHABLE, which you discussed very candidly on your blog. Having now tried things both ways, what would you say to someone who was considering which pub path to choose?

Don’t get seduced by the glamor. Strip away the fantasies and pursue the path that makes the most sense for you. And I mean that for both routes: it’s easy for an unpublished author to get swept away by fantasies of monster advances and movie deals and seeing their hardcovers on the shelves at Barnes & Noble—or, conversely, dreams of becoming an overnight viral sensation on Kindle. Both paths are difficult and success is never guaranteed, even with a traditional deal.

Because self-publishing has long borne the stigma of being the last resort of failed authors, I’m a little more defensive of that route compared to the traditional one. So here’s the part where I say: don’t dismiss self-publishing as being the route of failure. I didn’t choose to self-publish because I “failed” at becoming traditionally published—I chose it because traditional publishing failed me.

Which isn’t to say the traditional model doesn’t work. It does. But it’s seriously flawed, and many skilled, engaging writers are slipping through the cracks. I encourage any writer to consider self-publishing as a viable and equal option alongside traditional pub, not merely as a last resort.

Nearly all of what’s really succeeding in New Adult right now are sexy, commercial, college-set reads, while UNTEACHABLE breaks the mold with both its literary quality and the fact that it’s set in Maise’s senior year in high school. How did you come to the decision that you were going to publish it as NA, and what made you choose to put Maise in high school?

It had to be set in high school for the taboo to be a real issue. College professors hook up with students all the time, and while it’s frowned upon, it doesn’t tend to evoke those visceral feelings of disgust and moral affront. But an eighteen-year-old high school senior is toeing the line between childhood and adulthood, and that’s exactly what the book is all about: identifying where that line lies, then unrepentantly crossing it.

The decision to publish as NA came down to sex and taboo. It’s too sexually explicit for YA, and the way the taboo is embraced doesn’t jive with the cautionary approach YA tends to take, especially with controversial subjects. But the book is about more than sex: Maise’s issues are split between YA (coming of age, first love, high school, parents, boys) and NA (serious LTR, sex, college, money, debt), so I think it’s more of a crossover YA/NA than pure NA. Due to its controversial nature, though, I’m more comfortable simply calling it NA.

One of my favorite things about UNTEACHABLE is the way Evan and Maise are so honest about the fact that the taboo of their relationship plays in to the attraction of it. Knowing that about themselves and each other, why would you say they believe their relationship would be sustainable once it’s no longer a factor?

Answering this would be perilously close to telling readers how to interpret my book, which is a big no-no for me. So I’ll just say: one of the most important things in any relationship is honest communication. If two people can communicate about their relationship with total honesty, that’s a huge point in their favor, even if that relationship contains some disturbing elements.

The characters of Wesley and Siobhan definitely provide both interesting perspectives and varying sorts of moralization on Evan and Maise’s relationship, but they’re also great characters on their own. What inspired your vision of their home life, and what would they be up to in an imaginary sequel?

If Maise and Evan are my ideal teacher/student romance fantasy, then Wesley and Siobhan represent my ideal family fantasy. In some ways I feel like Maise—as if I never really got to be a kid, and will spend the rest of my life trying to capture whatever it was supposed to have been. The Browns are my fantasy of what growing up normal would’ve been like.

What would they be up to in an imaginary sequel? I can’t say, because there’s a possibility (small, but non-zero) that we may someday see that firsthand. (DEAR TEAM WESLEY: PLEASE DON’T KILL ME IF THIS DOESN’T HAPPEN.)

So, I’m just gonna come out and say it – your book is pretty freaking hot. Got any tips for the squeamish on writing scenes on the sexier side?

Booze, booze, and more booze. With a side of booze.

I could lie and say I’m just that mature and in tune with my sexuality, but I’m a terrible liar and a total priss. It was all alcohol. Lowered inhibitions FTW! Also, the whole, “I’ll never make a living writing, so I may as well have fun with this before I throw in the towel and become a surly, misanthropic waitress” thing really helped.

For the record, I can’t re-read certain scenes in Unteachable unless it’s like, after dusk and there is warm, soft lighting in the room and I’m absolutely sure my boyfriend is nowhere nearby to see me blushing my ass off.

Going back to that whole “pub history” thing, UNTEACHABLE was actually your third book. What can you tell us about the other two, and when can we expect to see those up for public consumption? And, because I’m me, when do we get more contemp from you?

Book 1: Zombies! It’s a crossover YA/adult thriller about five strangers who survive the zombie apocalypse together. Four of them are infected. One of them holds the key to stopping the outbreak. Dun dun dunnnn. (Also, it has a teacher/student relationship in it. HAPPY, DAHLIA?) (Blogger’s note: Not really, because IT ISN’T AVAILABLE TO ME AND I NEED IT.)

Book 2: A physically disabled half-cyborg girl must stop the serial killer stalking her spaceship. YA sci-fi thriller. (No teacher/student…but it does have a boss/employee romance, complete with age gap!)

When can you see them? No effing idea. I’m still evaluating how I want to proceed with my career. But I’m planning to have a standalone New Adult contemp romance out sometime this winter-ish.

So, I’m not at all awed or anything that you wrote UNTEACHABLE in a freaking month, obviously, but for those who might be, how did that happen? What parts would you say really wrote themselves the most strongly? And do you have any fast drafting tips or was this a real anomaly for you?

I think it was a combination of experience (each novel has been faster—the previous one took two months), and of learning which scenes are “candy bars” for me—that is, scenes you really look forward to writing that you can basically dangle in front of yourself like sweet, sweet chocolate and creamy nougat.

Unteachable made me finally admit to myself that I love writing romance. There. I said it. I love writing that world-stopping, time-slowing first kiss scene, that OMG-I-need-a-cold-shower first sex scene, all of it. Those are my candy bar scenes. I will always be a tomboy who snickers at candles and roses and shit, but yeah, I confess, I’m in love with love. AND I’M TOTALLY FINE WITH THAT. Mostly.

So as to which parts wrote themselves: the Evan scenes. All of them.

Also, I’m a fervent Scrivener disciple. Once I switched from Word to Scrivener, my writing sped WAY up. Having all your notes in one place is invaluable, and it’s awesome being able to visually storyboard with index cards. Going back to Word now would be like trying to write longhand.

Maise listens to music often throughout the book, though UNTEACHABLE’s wise author knows to ix-nay other people’s lyrics in your writing unless you want to shell out for permissions. Now that we’re in a safe, bloggy zone where we can talk about such things (I think? Right? Am I going to get sued for asking this? Please don’t sue me), what songs and, more specifically, which lyrics, really scream UNTEACHABLE/Maise/Evan to you?

I love you for asking this, even though we are probably the only two people on Earth who actually care. ❤

The main theme is (surprise!) “Maps” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs: “Wait, they don’t love you like I love you.” It applies to so many relationships: Wesley’s love for Maise, Maise and Evan’s love for each other, even Maise’s troubled love for her mother. But mostly I associate it with the way Evan loves Maise. Even though the story is told from her POV, I kind of see her the way Evan does, as the shooting star he can’t hold. She feels like a real person who just took over my brain, wrote her own book, then walked away and vanished, leaving me empty and aching with wonder. I miss her.

Maise’s theme is “Bravado” by Lorde, because…well, the title, obviously! But also lines like: “I’m faking glory / Lick my lips, toss my hair and send a smile over / And the story’s brand new / But I can take it from here / I’ll find my own bravado.” It’s about a lonely girl faking confidence, and there’s this gorgeous gospel choir that captures the soulful sadness at the core of her, and it’s just friggin’ perfect.

Evan’s theme is “Shooting Stars” by Bag Raiders, for obvious reasons: “I’m in love with a shooting star / But she moves so fast / When she falls, then I’ll be waiting.” I also heavily associate him with “When in Rome” by Band Called Catch: “I remember that night like it was the beginning of the rest of my life,” “And I rose to your love / Like a blackbird to his dove.” Which sounds a lot less cheesy when the dude sings it.

Then there’s Lana del Rey’s “Young and Beautiful” right before the big I Love You: “Will you still love me when I’m no longer young and beautiful? / Will you still love me when I’ve got nothing but my aching soul?”

And finally, “Girls Like You” by The Naked and Famous. It’s the song I hear in the very final scene when the “music fades in,” and it is so Maise, man. Listen to it. I can’t quote from it because the entire damn thing is relevant. Whenever I hear it, I picture that plane on the runway and get this funny feeling in my throat and the screen gets blurry and fuck, let’s change the subject.

UNTEACHABLE is set in the Midwest, where you currently reside, but you’ve lived in cities including LA, NY, and Tehran. Any of your past home cities particularly inspire you, and will we see any of them appearing in future books?

Absolutely, and maybe. I am so over the eight months of cold and darkness you get each year in Chicago. I need to live somewhere with more sunlight and less concrete, and I think my longing for that bled a bit into UT.

I’m not sure if I’ll write about the big cities I’ve lived in. What I really love is writing about little out-of-the-way places you don’t usually see in popular fiction. Also, the Midwest (the real Midwest, not Chicago) is seriously under-represented in everything except, like, MFA-produced literary fiction.

And now, it’s book rec time! What teacher-student relationship books must get a shoutout? And which New Adult books are your absolutely favorites?

The Adults by Alison Espach is one of my all-time favorite teacher/student books. Even though the romantic relationship is totally fucked-up and dysfunctional, the book has this dry, black humor that makes it compulsively readable. It’s lit fic, not romance, though. I also liked R.A. Nelson’s YA contemp Teach Me, which has an entertainingly batshit heroine who goes on a crazed revenge quest, and Cathy Coote’s Innocents, which is a pretty graphic and disturbing YA (sort of?) inversion of Lolita: the student is actually the villain.

And I have to give Taming the Beast by Emily Maguire an honorary shout here. It is not, in any way, a romance, but rather a brutal portrait of a young woman who’s completely devastated by her affair with a sadistic teacher. It’s like watching Dolores Haze grow up…when she becomes a walking timebomb. There’s real pain and despair in this book. It’s by no means a pleasure read, but if you like dark and bleak, you may dig it.

As for New Adult…I don’t read it. I can’t stand the misogyny and superficiality that’s so rampant in NA, so it’s difficult for me to find a title I can read without grinding my teeth. We can, and should, be doing so much better. I’m dying to find a new Laurie Halse Anderson in NA. I crave complex, nuanced characters and Serious Issues that aren’t just played for cheap angst. NA is still in its infancy, and I hope that in time, great new voices emerge.

In case you can’t tell from my having her here, and also from my raving about UNTEACHABLE like a freaking madwoman, there’s a great NA voice right here in Leah Raeder and her debut, so if you haven’t already, pick it up ASAP (in paperback, even!), love it like I did, and stay tuned for more!